CALIPSO

Description

CALIPSO's outreach activities support students as scientists through activities that engage students in authentic NASA Earth science. Since CALIPSO’s launch in 2006, education and public outreach efforts have included educator professional development, student-scientist mentoring, curriculum resource development, and public outreach through collaborative mission efforts. The activities leverage several existing NASA programs, including GLOBE and MY NASA DATA, both which have records of success. For example, CALIPSO has a long history of collaborating with GLOBE to provide educator professional development in the area of atmospheric science, particularly aerosols, and provide opportunities for students to become citizen scientists by engaging in hands-on data collection of aerosols. These activities showcase CALIPSO's commitment to attract and retain students in STEM disciplines and building strategic partnerships and linkages with STEM formal and informal education providers to promote STEM literacy and awareness of NASA’s mission.

Lead Organizations

Langley Research Center (LaRC) 

Partnerships

The CALIPSO mission is a partnership with the French space agency, CNES. This international partnership has allowed us to develop K-12 resources for a global audience. In order to support this partnership we have developed our resources in multiple languages, including French and Spanish. CALIPSO has a long standing partnership with The GLOBE Program, an international environmental science program sponsored by NASA. This partnership allows us to leverage existing, vetted, resources that supports CALIPSO's E/PO vision to engage students as scientists. This also provides both a systemic national and international audience. MY NASA DATA is another partnership that offers the opportunity to provide data publicly, in a K-12 friendly format, through a cross-mission collaboration. Their website reaches more than 200,000 unique visitors annually. CALIPSO has also leverages several geographically local partnerships in order to provide stronger reach to our local community. These local partnerships include CHROME (Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering). CHROME’s mission is to increase opportunities for underrepresented minorities and females to enter math, science, engineering, and related technical career fields (STEM). Other local partnerships include Region 2 Math & Science Coalition, Virginia Air & Space Center, and NASA’s Educator Resource Center.

Metrics

Additional Metrics:

See section below on effectiveness and impacts.

Effectiveness and Impact

Evaluation findings and impact statements:

CALIPSO E/PO evaluation includes a mixed methods approach including surveys and quantitative metrics, as appropriate. Activities led by other NASA programs are incorporated into that program's evaluation, such as GLOBE, MY NASA DATA, and Know Your Earth. From 2006-2011 CALIPSO's E/PO efforts were led by Hampton University. We do not currently have evaluation records from this time period.

Impact and evaluation from previous CALIPSO efforts (2006-2011) are unavailable, as these efforts were led by a different organization. Current impacts measurements are in process; however anecdotal evidence suggests educator participation in NASA E/PO activities leads to participation in additional NASA E/PO activities. For example, 2 of the 4 teachers participating in the 2012-2013 GLOBE Atmosphere Investigations program voluntarily signed up for attended additional NASA professional development sessions.

Audience quotes:

"Best teacher workshop ever!"

"Everyone should learn about Europa"